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Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody
An engaging look into the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, queer activists devoted to social justice
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence make up an unlikely order of nuns. Self-described as “twenty-first century queer nuns,” the Sisters began in 1979 when three bored gay men donned retired Roman Catholic nuns’ habits and went for a stroll through San Francisco’s gay Castro district. The stunned and delighted responses they received prompted these already-seasoned activists to consider whether the habits might have some use in social justice work, and within a year they had constituted the new order. Today, with more than 83 houses on four different continents, the Sisters offer health outreach, support, and, at times, protest on behalf of queer communities.
In Queer Nuns, Melissa M. Wilcox offers new insights into the role the Sisters play across queer culture and the religious landscape. The Sisters both spoof nuns and argue quite seriously that they are nuns, adopting an innovative approach the author refers to as serious parody. Like any performance, serious parody can either challenge or reinforce existing power dynamics, and it often accomplishes both simultaneously. The book demonstrates that, through the use of this strategy, the Sisters are able to offer an effective, flexible, and noteworthy approach to community-based activism.
Serious parody ultimately has broader applications beyond its use by the Sisters. Wilcox argues that serious parody offers potential uses and challenges in the efforts of activist groups to work within communities that are opposed and oppressed by culturally significant traditions and organizations – as is the case with queer communities and the Roman Catholic Church. This book opens the door to a new world of religion and social activism, one which could be adapted to a range of political movements, individual inclinations, and community settings.
The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence make up an unlikely order of nuns. Self-described as “twenty-first century queer nuns,” the Sisters began in 1979 when three bored gay men donned retired Roman Catholic nuns’ habits and went for a stroll through San Francisco’s gay Castro district. The stunned and delighted responses they received prompted these already-seasoned activists to consider whether the habits might have some use in social justice work, and within a year they had constituted the new order. Today, with more than 83 houses on four different continents, the Sisters offer health outreach, support, and, at times, protest on behalf of queer communities.
In Queer Nuns, Melissa M. Wilcox offers new insights into the role the Sisters play across queer culture and the religious landscape. The Sisters both spoof nuns and argue quite seriously that they are nuns, adopting an innovative approach the author refers to as serious parody. Like any performance, serious parody can either challenge or reinforce existing power dynamics, and it often accomplishes both simultaneously. The book demonstrates that, through the use of this strategy, the Sisters are able to offer an effective, flexible, and noteworthy approach to community-based activism.
Serious parody ultimately has broader applications beyond its use by the Sisters. Wilcox argues that serious parody offers potential uses and challenges in the efforts of activist groups to work within communities that are opposed and oppressed by culturally significant traditions and organizations – as is the case with queer communities and the Roman Catholic Church. This book opens the door to a new world of religion and social activism, one which could be adapted to a range of political movements, individual inclinations, and community settings.
336 pages, Hardcover
Published May 22, 2018
About the author
Melissa M. Wilcox
12 books9 followersMelissa M. Wilcox is Professor and Holstein Family and Community Chair of Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. She is the author of Queer Women and Religious Individualism, winner of the 2010 Book Award of the ASA’s Sociology of Religion Section.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 14, 2023
“Queer Nuns: Religion, Activism, and Serious Parody” by Melissa M. Wilcox
For the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, habits and whiteface are more than just “dragging” Christianity. For these public figures, their costumes are the manifestation of a public persona designed for education and protest against anti-queer forces in the world. They aren’t just performing as nuns; they ARE nuns, with a ministry to back it up. Melissa M. Wilcox’s book, a detailed description and analysis of the Sisters from a qualitative research design, presents a stunning picture of some of the most notorious figures in queer activism over the past 40+ years. As a qualitative communication scholar, a queer man, and an ex-Roman Catholic, I am stunned by this work. I knew generally of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, but never their deep history and complex relationship with religion, activism, and identity. As someone who incorporates questions of performativity, identity, and culture in his own work, I found myself fascinated by the notion of serious parody, their adamant claim to their vocation, the complex gendered or agendered relationship to the sisterhood, and their complicated presence in public. This is a stellar piece of academic writing, and remains insightful without losing its relative accessibility. It’s still quite academic, but if you want to learn about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and consider the role of parody in activism this book can get you there. I will be taking lessons from this book into my teaching and inspiration from Wilcox’s excellent research approach into my own writing.
For the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, habits and whiteface are more than just “dragging” Christianity. For these public figures, their costumes are the manifestation of a public persona designed for education and protest against anti-queer forces in the world. They aren’t just performing as nuns; they ARE nuns, with a ministry to back it up. Melissa M. Wilcox’s book, a detailed description and analysis of the Sisters from a qualitative research design, presents a stunning picture of some of the most notorious figures in queer activism over the past 40+ years. As a qualitative communication scholar, a queer man, and an ex-Roman Catholic, I am stunned by this work. I knew generally of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, but never their deep history and complex relationship with religion, activism, and identity. As someone who incorporates questions of performativity, identity, and culture in his own work, I found myself fascinated by the notion of serious parody, their adamant claim to their vocation, the complex gendered or agendered relationship to the sisterhood, and their complicated presence in public. This is a stellar piece of academic writing, and remains insightful without losing its relative accessibility. It’s still quite academic, but if you want to learn about the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence and consider the role of parody in activism this book can get you there. I will be taking lessons from this book into my teaching and inspiration from Wilcox’s excellent research approach into my own writing.
January 24, 2024
Wilcox analyzes the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence through the lens of serious parody in order to understand the Sisters' activism through gender and political performativity. Wilcox spent time with the Sisters and shares many photos and cultural touchstones of the group. Particularly tied to HIV/AIDS activism and kinship networks that formed out of the need for grassroots support during the crisis, the prayer "Our Brother" mostly aptly sums up many aspects of their work in "Let us spread affection without infection...We lead ourselves into indulgence, and deliver ourselves from ill health...without...herpes, hep, or guilt!" (p. 67).
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March 18, 2021Very interesting academic nonfiction; it was an impulse borrow and I was happy with it :)
It's a thorough ethnographic study of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, based on many interviews, participant observation, archival research etc. It explores how they relate to gender, race and religion (as a predominantly white cis gay group). I thought it was a sympathetic discussion that did not shy away even from tough topics like current use of whiteface and previous occasional use of blackface in the group and how both BIPOC and white members of the order relate to that.
It is also good as a general overview to the Sisters, I think - as an outsider, admittedly, but as someone who is very interested in both religion, queerness, and also serious parody. I found myself thinking of parallels with a very different group that also engages in serious parody, the Two-Tailed Dog Party in Hungary (interesting that I've also seen race as a sore point there, and sometimes even with a similar dynamic).
My only issue was that sometimes I felt that important points were left to the endnotes; the book suffered a bit from the typical issue with Anglo academic writing that one segment should only be about one topic, which makes intersectional ideas face an additional conceptual barrier in explication. (I first wanted to say Western academic writing, but actually I think this is specifically an Anglo issue and less prevalent in continental Europe, even Western Europe.) So e.g., when chapters not about race explored race (there is a very long chapter about race), sometimes this discussion was delegated to the endnotes. I read the endnotes after each chapter because I didn't want to constantly flip back and forth, and I found myself being slightly bothered about things that then were discussed in the endnotes. I feel this might have been mostly resolved just by using footnotes at the bottom of each page instead of endnotes, so it's more of a publisher stylesheet issue than an author issue - the author clearly thought about most things that bothered me. I would have just set the book up slightly differently. To be honest, I prefer these lines of thought incorporated into the main text, but I clash with academic editors over this myself ("this should be moved to a footnote" "Whyyyyyyyyyy"), so I know how this goes :)
Anyway, with my apologies for the long and slightly tangential comment... I enjoyed the book and it also worked well as free time reading.
____
Source of the book: KU Watson Library
It's a thorough ethnographic study of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, based on many interviews, participant observation, archival research etc. It explores how they relate to gender, race and religion (as a predominantly white cis gay group). I thought it was a sympathetic discussion that did not shy away even from tough topics like current use of whiteface and previous occasional use of blackface in the group and how both BIPOC and white members of the order relate to that.
It is also good as a general overview to the Sisters, I think - as an outsider, admittedly, but as someone who is very interested in both religion, queerness, and also serious parody. I found myself thinking of parallels with a very different group that also engages in serious parody, the Two-Tailed Dog Party in Hungary (interesting that I've also seen race as a sore point there, and sometimes even with a similar dynamic).
My only issue was that sometimes I felt that important points were left to the endnotes; the book suffered a bit from the typical issue with Anglo academic writing that one segment should only be about one topic, which makes intersectional ideas face an additional conceptual barrier in explication. (I first wanted to say Western academic writing, but actually I think this is specifically an Anglo issue and less prevalent in continental Europe, even Western Europe.) So e.g., when chapters not about race explored race (there is a very long chapter about race), sometimes this discussion was delegated to the endnotes. I read the endnotes after each chapter because I didn't want to constantly flip back and forth, and I found myself being slightly bothered about things that then were discussed in the endnotes. I feel this might have been mostly resolved just by using footnotes at the bottom of each page instead of endnotes, so it's more of a publisher stylesheet issue than an author issue - the author clearly thought about most things that bothered me. I would have just set the book up slightly differently. To be honest, I prefer these lines of thought incorporated into the main text, but I clash with academic editors over this myself ("this should be moved to a footnote" "Whyyyyyyyyyy"), so I know how this goes :)
Anyway, with my apologies for the long and slightly tangential comment... I enjoyed the book and it also worked well as free time reading.
____
Source of the book: KU Watson Library
August 4, 2018
Absolutely loved it. Great ethnographic writing that privileged the words of the Sisters themselves. Awesome analysis that was accessible and fascinating, even for someone we has never read a religious studies book. Also, an important contribution to the history of queer community activism during the HIV/AIDS plague. Read this as the inaugural book of a queer book club and it was right on target. Highly recommended (for academics and non-academics alike).
July 12, 2026
Thoughtful, well researched history of the origins and growth of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. I have been aware of them for decades but discovered I was woefully ignorant of their actual depth and purpose. It is too easy just to think of them as a Bay Area novelty. They are so much more. If you are at all curious this book will answer all your questions. I cannot say it was an easy read - there are plenty of paragraphs I read over and over again trying to parse the language, and I in fact put it aside for several months at one point - but I am so glad I finished it. A fascinating subject, very thoroughly explored.
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February 21, 2022Read for my Social Justice, Spirituality, and the American Radical Tradition class.
Did Not Finish
September 1, 2023I just cannot get into the rhythm of this book, which I absolutely hate because I’m also a qualitative researcher. I love the nuns and what they do but cannot keep trying. I will recommend to others though as this is an important work.
December 6, 2023
Solid look into The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, warts and all.
October 20, 2018
If you know of the sisters, but have wanted to learn more, then this is your book. It’s academic yet readable & I enjoyed it. Thanks for writing this book Melissa M. Wilcox!
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August 24, 2018306.766 W6677 2018
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews